How to Setup TFTP on Ubuntu 11.10

Recently I decide to jump into the pool of using diskless Ubuntu. Basically the client computer downloads the necessary files from the Ubuntu server every time during the boot. To keep things simple and easy, Ubuntu does that by using TFTP. So the first step is to set up a TFTP server on the server. For those who haven’t heard of TFTP, it is similar to FTP, except that it has no security feature, and the function is extremely limited. Anyway, here is how to set up a TFTP server on Ubuntu 11.10:

Installing TFTP sounds easy. However, I’ve heard that many people experienced many issues during the installation, such as Error code 2: Access violation issue. That’s why I create this tutorial. If you follow exact the same steps, you will not experience any problem.

Test: Download a file from TFTP Server

Now, let’s go to a different directory and download the file we just upload.

cd some_other_directory

and log in to the tftp server again:

tftp localhost

and get the file:

tftp> get myfile.jpg
Received 56733279 bytes in 5.7 seconds

You are done.

Troubleshooting (e.g., Error code 2: Access violation)

If you see a message like: Error code 2: Access violation

Make sure that you:
– Follow the exact procedure in this tutorial
– Make sure that the tftp is started with -s flag.
– Check the permission of the directory, i.e., 777
– After you’ve made any changes to the TFTP configuration, make sure that you stop and start the inet service again.
– Don’t forget to quit tftp before retrying the command.

This was a fantastic post and it helped me immensely.
I hope you don’t mind but I copied and pasted your post to my blog, but made sure to give you the credit. If you do not want me to keep your post there let me know and I will take it down and just keep the link back to your post.
Thanks again for posting this great How-To.